Maize-N-Brew: Defense stepping up for Michigan

Sep. 23, 2013

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Written by

Zach Travis

Detroit Free Press Special Writer

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Zach Travis is a manager of the Wolverines blog Maize n Brew. His opinions do not necessarily reflect those of the Detroit Free Press nor its writers. Read his column every week here and contact him anytime at zwtravis@gmail.com.

Defense wins championships. It also  in the case of Brady Hoke era Michigan teams  sometimes bails out an offense that doesn't otherwise deserve it. Saturday at UConn was another one for the defense.

UConn worked its way to 21 points very quickly, and the speed at which it happened, coupled with the offensive ineptitude across from it, caused a great deal more panic than was probably necessary given just what a game the Michigan defense was in the midst of putting together.

UConn finished the game with 206 yards and a gain of just 3.6 yards per play. The Husky rushing attack that was inept coming into the game was shown to be just that. Not one of UConn's three running backs bested 40 yards on the day, and as a whole the team averaged just four yards per rush. Meanwhile, Chase Whitmer threw for just 159 yards on 32 attempts.

Yardage doesn't tell the whole story. Michigan's defense time and time again able to stall UConn drives. The bad news? Michigan gave up a 56-yard touchdown drive in the second quarter, as well as a touchdown pass after being pinned deep following a muffed punt.

The rest of the game, the Michigan defense was lights out. UConn had 13 drives in the game. Over half of those ended in three plays or less, with six turning into punts and another a late momentum swinging interception. Four more drives that made it past three plays were held under 40 yards total and not one made it into the Michigan red zone.

In fact, Michigan's special teams gift-wrapped as many redzone trips for the UConn offense as it was able to generate for itself.

Michigan's defense also salvaged things after a failed fourth-down run by Devin Gardner, setting up the offense with a short field for the game-tying touchdown.

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It wasn't always pretty, but Michigan's defense was very effective at keeping a bad UConn offense under wraps for almost the entire game. Once again Michigan played a lot of nickel defense, preferring to keep UConn plays in front and inside.

There are still issues present. Michigan has a tendency to give up yards on running plays because it is spread too thin (and insists on playing a lot of its young 3-tech tackles). There are also a few issues with zone coverage over the middle (specifically linebacker zone drops and not covering players through the zone).

However, given the youth that still exists all over this defense, the mistakes aren't surprising. And given the way Michigan continually shut UConn down on Saturday, the overall effectiveness of the defense looked pretty good.

Late in the game it was easy to worry as Michigan's offense continued to sputter, but the defense never wavered. Whether it was the handful of games last year in which the defense kept Michigan in it late, or the Sugar Bowl in 2011, it is comforting to know that when this team really needs it, the defense will more often than not be able to come through down the stretch.